KR20180083744A - System and method for providing road sign information - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for providing road sign information and a system for the same, which enable safe driving by wirelessly transmitting road sign information to provide a vehicle with a location or distance information of a road sign when the vehicle is recognized. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method for providing road sign information comprises: a vehicle recognition step of recognizing a vehicle traveling on a road to extract vehicle identification information; and an information transmission step of wirelessly transmitting road sign information including the vehicle identification information, the type of a road sign, and coordinate information when the vehicle is recognized. According to the present invention, since the road sign information including information on a time when a wireless signal is received, information indicating the number of times of transmission, and the coordinate information is transmitted, the vehicle is capable of more accurately grasping a location of a road sign and an accurate point of time when the road sign information is to be utilized from the information and the speed of the vehicle.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a road sign information providing system,

The present invention relates to a road sign information providing method and system, and more particularly, to a road sign information providing method and system for providing road mark information by wirelessly transmitting road mark information when a vehicle is recognized, And to a system and method for providing the same.

Roads on which the vehicle is operated are equipped with road signs to ensure safe and smooth road traffic and provide information to the driver on the road. The road sign provides the driver with information for safe driving, information related to the route of travel, regulations or instructions on traffic behavior. Therefore, in order to ensure safe and efficient vehicle operation, it is necessary to accurately and quickly grasp road signs. In the case of autonomous vehicles, the ability to grasp road sign information is a very important performance item directly related to safety.

Generally, a navigation device provides road sign information to a vehicle driver based on the traveling position of the vehicle through an electronic map. However, since this method provides road sign information through the location of the vehicle and the electronic map acquired using the GPS receiver, it is difficult to utilize at the point where the positioning accuracy of the vehicle is low, such as a tunnel, The attribute information is dependent on the attribute information update period of the electronic map, and there is a problem that the real time property of the information can not be secured.

Various methods have been proposed for solving these problems and accurately conveying road sign information to a vehicle driver or an autonomous vehicle.

For example, Korean Patent No. 1673433 discloses a method of recognizing a route number area by extracting a size and a type of a road sign recognized by an image recognition means such as a camera, recognizing the route number in the identified route number area, Direction information is recognized according to the type of the road sign. However, the method of extracting road marking information using image recognition has a problem that it is difficult to apply when the road marking is not clearly visible due to the weather or surrounding vehicles, and the recognition error sometimes occurs.

In order to solve the problem related to image recognition, Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 10-2016-0096972 discloses a method and apparatus for generating attribute information (signboard ID, use, type, location, information and image information) So that the property information of the road sign can be utilized in the vehicle. However, in this method, the vehicle can not obtain the distance to the road sign and the azimuth information, so that the vehicle can not specify the exact time at which the information should be utilized (for example, the speed restriction interception point) There is a problem that it is not possible to determine the priority of the information when a plurality of road mark information is received.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for providing road mark information that can specify an accurate position or exact position of a road sign. It is another object of the present invention to provide a road mark information providing method and system capable of determining a priority of information when a plurality of road mark information is received in the case of a road on which a plurality of road markers are installed.

A road marking information providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a vehicle recognizing step of recognizing a vehicle running on a road and extracting vehicle identification information; a step of recognizing the vehicle identification information, the type of road sign, The road mark information including the road mark information.

A road sign information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes vehicle identification means for recognizing a vehicle that is installed in connection with a road sign and running on the road to extract vehicle identification information, And a wireless transmitter for wirelessly transmitting road sign information including the type of the road sign and coordinate information together with the vehicle identification information.

In one embodiment, vehicle recognition can be performed by receiving a vehicle information signal that is wirelessly transmitted from the vehicle, and recognizing unique vehicle identification information included in the vehicle information signal. In this case, display means may be provided to indicate that there is a road sign before a predetermined distance of the road sign. When the vehicle recognizes the display means, the vehicle information signal is transmitted so that the vehicle information signal can be wirelessly transmitted only when necessary in the vehicle. The display means can be constituted by an image of a predetermined type, and the vehicle can recognize the display means by using image recognition means such as a camera.

In another embodiment, the vehicle recognition is performed by recognizing the vehicle from the image acquired by the image acquisition means and recognizing the vehicle number as the vehicle identification information from the recognized image of the vehicle. In this case, it is possible to distinguish and recognize vehicles that run in each lane when recognizing the vehicle, and to include the information about the lane on which the vehicle is recognized in the road sign information.

In another embodiment, the vehicle identification can be performed by receiving a signal from an RFID tag installed on the floor of the vehicle using an RFID reader installed on the road surface and extracting unique vehicle identification information from the signal from the RFID tag have. In this case, the RFID reader may be installed for each lane, and the road mark information may include information about the lane on which the RFID reader that receives the signal from the RFID tag is installed.

The road sign information may also include information on the time when the vehicle is recognized. The vehicle can be configured to regard only the road marking information including the same vehicle identification information as the own vehicle identification information as the road marking information for the vehicle itself. In addition, the information sending step may be configured to be repeatedly executed at a predetermined time period. In this case, the road mark information may also include information indicating the number of shots after the vehicle recognition step. The vehicle can calculate the information on the number of times of dispatch, the distance from the coordinate information and the speed of the vehicle to the road sign, the time, the position of the vehicle, and the like.

In the case where a plurality of road signs exist adjacent to each other, in order to prevent a malfunction due to radio wave interference, priority is set on each road sign, and the road sign information is transmitted only from a radio transmitter assigned to the road sign having the highest priority And the vehicle may store information on a plurality of adjacent road signboards corresponding to the road sign information coordinates. When the road mark information is received from the road mark information having the highest priority, the vehicle reads information about the stored plurality of road markers and recognizes that there are a plurality of road markers at the corresponding location. Alternatively, the wireless transmitter may be installed only on the road sign having the highest priority, and the wireless transmitter may wirelessly transmit the road sign information on the plurality of adjacent road signs.

Alternatively, in the case where a plurality of road signs are adjacent to each other, a short distance wireless communication means for short distance wireless communication with an adjacent road sign is provided on each road sign, and priority is given to the short distance wireless communication means of the road sign having a low priority The information indicating the type of the road sign can be transmitted to the nearest wireless communication means of the highest road sign. In this case, the radio transmitter assigned to the road sign having the highest priority also transmits the information indicating the type of the adjacent road sign received through the short-range wireless communication means together with the radio.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to provide a sensor on the road sign to sense the surrounding environment and adjust the priority according to the circumstance of the environment detected by the sensor. For example, a slippery road sign may be set to have the highest priority in a rain or snowy environment.

According to the present invention, the road mark information including the information on the time of receiving the wireless signal, the information on the number of times of shipment, and the coordinate information is transmitted, so that the vehicle can calculate the position of the road sign or the road sign information It is possible to more precisely grasp the exact time to utilize.

According to the present invention, in the case of a road in which a plurality of road signs are installed adjacent to each other, priority is assigned to each road sign, and the road sign information is transmitted only from a radio transmitter assigned to the road sign with the highest priority, Communication errors due to radio interference can be prevented and the most important road sign information among various road signs can be easily grasped by assigning the highest priority to the most important road sign or adjusting the priority according to the surrounding environment.

1 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration of a road sign information providing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation flow according to a road mark information providing method according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration of a road sign information providing system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation flow according to a road mark information providing method according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a configuration of a road sign information providing system according to a third embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation flow according to a road mark information providing method according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

In the present invention, the road mark information providing system recognizes the vehicle running on the road and extracts the vehicle identification information. When the vehicle is recognized, the road mark information including the vehicle identification information, the type of the road sign, do. The road mark information providing system includes a vehicle identification unit that is installed in association with a road sign and recognizes a vehicle running on the road and extracts the vehicle identification information, And a wireless transmitter for wirelessly transmitting road sign information including the type of the road sign and coordinate information.

When the vehicle receives the road marking information including the vehicle identification information that matches the vehicle identification information, the vehicle identifies the exact position or the exact position of the road marking to utilize the road marking information by using the information and utilizes it for autonomous driving. The road marking information may include lane information, and the vehicle may be configured to utilize only the road marking information on the same lane as the lane in which the vehicle is traveling.

The information transmission from the road mark information providing apparatus is repeatedly performed at a predetermined time period, and the transmitted information also includes information indicating the number of times the same vehicle identification information is transmitted. The vehicle calculates information on the number of shots, coordinate information, and the distance from the speed of the vehicle to the road sign. For example, in a vehicle statistically traveling at 80 km / h, the first dispatch signal is received 100 meters before the road sign, the second dispatch signal is received 80 meters before the road sign, and the third dispatch signal is received 60 meters before the road sign The distance from the current speed of the vehicle to the road sign or the arrival time to the road sign can be grasped more accurately. Further, the position information of the vehicle can be estimated more accurately even in a place or a weather where the GPS receiver is difficult to operate from this information and the coordinate information of the road sign.

The road mark information to be transmitted may have the configuration as shown in Table 1, for example.

Item Explanation Data format Traffic safety sign installation absolute coordinates
(Latitude / longitude) Location where traffic safety signs are installed
(Based on the center point of the pole) Dependent on top / bottom representation Vehicle recognition time information Time information at the time when the vehicle was first recognized Depends on time expression Data delivery cycle The frequency (ms) at which data is sent from the wireless transmitter Number 3 digits Data send count delimiter An identifier indicating the number of data sent after recognizing the vehicle Number 3 digits
(001, 002, 003, ..., 999) Road sign type Types of road signs Number three digits
Follows the number of the traffic safety sign provided in the Enforcement Rules of the Road Traffic Act

Hereinafter, some embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

≪ Embodiment 1 >

In the first embodiment, the vehicle is recognized using the vehicle information signal transmitted wirelessly from the vehicle, and the unique vehicle identification information included in the vehicle information signal is extracted. 1, the road mark information providing system of the first embodiment includes a wireless receiver 110 for receiving a vehicle information signal transmitted wirelessly from the vehicle 10 and extracting unique vehicle identification information, As recognition means. The wireless transmitter 120 transmits the vehicle identification information received from the wireless receiver 110, information on the time of receiving the wireless signal, the type of the road sign, and the coordinate information as road sign information.

According to the embodiment, display means (hereinafter, referred to as 'road sign display means') indicating that there is a road sign is provided before a predetermined distance of the road sign, and when the vehicle 10 recognizes the display means, As shown in FIG. In one embodiment, the road sign display means may comprise an image M of a predetermined type as shown in FIG. In this case, the vehicle can recognize the display means using image recognition means such as a camera. Regardless of the type of road signage, it is desirable to unify the image in one form and to have a simple form in order to increase the recognition accuracy. In addition, according to the embodiment, it is possible to arrange the images in a lane-by-lane manner so that the lane in which the vehicle is currently traveling can be distinguished. For example, the first lane can be represented by a triangle, the second lane by a rectangle, the third lane by a star, and the fourth lane by a hexagon. In this case, it is possible to configure the vehicle to include the information about the lane in which the vehicle is traveling in the vehicle information signal.

2 is a flowchart showing an operational flow according to the first embodiment.

When the vehicle 10 senses the road sign display means M indicating that the road sign is in the front during driving (Step S21), the vehicle 10 transmits the vehicle information signal including the vehicle identification information wirelessly (Step S22). The wireless receiver 110 receives the vehicle identification information and transmits the extracted vehicle identification information to the wireless transmitter 120 (step S23). The wireless transmitter 120 records the time at which the information was received, and transmits the received vehicle identification information, the reception time, the type of the road sign, and the coordinate information as road sign information (step S24). According to an embodiment, the origination of the road mark information is repeatedly performed at a predetermined time period, and the road mark information to be transmitted also includes information indicating the number of times of repeated vehicle identification information transmission. For example, a field indicating the number of times of shipment is sent with 1 being displayed on the first shipment and 2 being displayed on the second shipment.

The vehicle 10 extracts information on the road sign in front of the received road sign information, and uses it for information display and autonomous operation in the navigation device (step S25). When information indicating the number of shots is included, the distance from the number of shots, coordinate information, vehicle speed, etc. to the road sign is calculated.

≪ Embodiment 2 >

In the second embodiment, the vehicle is recognized from the image acquired by the image acquisition means such as a camera, and the vehicle number is recognized as the vehicle identification information from the image in which the vehicle is recognized. 3, the road mark information providing system of the second embodiment includes one or more cameras 211a, 211b, and 211c for acquiring images of the vehicle 20, Vehicle number recognizing means 212 for recognizing the vehicle number as information is provided as the vehicle recognizing means. The wireless transmitter 220 transmits information on the time when the vehicle number and the vehicle number received from the vehicle number recognizing means 212 are received, the type of the road sign, and the coordinate information as road sign information.

In one embodiment, the cameras are installed in each lane so as to recognize a vehicle traveling on each lane, and the vehicle number recognizing means 212 notifies the vehicle dispatcher 220 of information about the lane along which the vehicle is traveling along with the vehicle number do. The wireless transmitter 220 wirelessly transmits road mark information including information about a lane.

In another embodiment, it is also possible to configure a single camera to monitor a plurality of lanes. Also in this case, the car number recognizing means 212 recognizes the lane on which the vehicle is running from the image from the camera, and transmits the car number and information about the lane in which the car is traveling to the radio transmitter 220. [

4 is a flowchart showing an operational flow according to the second embodiment.

The camera 211b transmits the image of the lane taken by the camera 211b to the vehicle number recognizing means 212 (step S41). Depending on the embodiment, the image may be transmitted only when the vehicle is recognized Do. The vehicle number recognizing unit 212 extracts the vehicle number from the received image and transmits it to the wireless transmitter 220 (step S42). Since the car number recognizing means 212 can know the lane information from the image received from the camera, the car number recognizing means 212 also transmits the information on the lane to the radio transmitter 220. [ When one camera is responsible for a plurality of lanes, the vehicle number recognizing means 212 also extracts information on the lane from the image and delivers it. The wireless transmitter 220 records the time at which the information was received, and transmits the received vehicle identification information, the reception time, the type of the road sign, and the coordinate information as the road sign information (step S43). According to an embodiment, the origination of the road mark information is repeatedly performed at a predetermined time period, and the road mark information to be transmitted also includes information indicating the number of times of repeated vehicle identification information transmission.

The vehicle 20 extracts information on the road sign in front of the received road sign information, and uses it for information display and autonomous operation in the navigation device (step S25). When information indicating the number of shots is included, the distance from the number of shots, coordinate information, vehicle speed, etc. to the road sign is calculated.

≪ Third Embodiment >

In the third embodiment, an RFID reader is installed on the road surface and an RFID tag is provided on the bottom of the vehicle, and unique vehicle identification information is extracted from a signal transmitted from the RFID tag when the vehicle passes. 5, the road mark information providing system of the third embodiment includes RFID readers 310a and 310b for extracting unique vehicle identification information by receiving a signal from the RFID tag installed at the bottom of the vehicle 30 , 310c. It is preferable that the RFID readers 310a, 310b, and 310c are embedded in the road surface for each lane in order to reduce the distance from the RFID tag. The wireless transmitter 320 transmits the vehicle identification information received from the RFID reader, the information about the time when the signal is received from the RFID reader, the type of the road sign, and the coordinate information as road sign information.

The RFID readers 310a, 310b, and 310c are installed for each lane to recognize a vehicle that runs on each lane. The wireless transmitter 320 identifies a lane in which the vehicle is traveling according to information received from an RFID, and wirelessly transmits information including lane information captured in the road mark information.

6 is a flowchart showing an operational flow according to the third embodiment.

The RFID reader 310b receives a signal from the RFID tag installed in the vehicle traveling in the lane in which the RFID reader 310b is running, and transmits the signal to the wireless transmitter 320 (step S61). The wireless transmitter 320 records the time at which the information was received, and transmits the received vehicle identification information, the reception time, the type of the road sign, and the coordinate information as the road sign information (step S62). The wireless transmitter 320 identifies a lane in which the vehicle is traveling according to information received from an RFID, and wirelessly transmits information including lane information captured in the road mark information. According to an embodiment, the origination of the road mark information is repeatedly performed at a predetermined time period, and the road mark information to be transmitted also includes information indicating the number of times of repeated vehicle identification information transmission.

The vehicle 30 extracts information about the road sign in front of the received road sign information, and utilizes it for information display and autonomous operation in the navigation device (step S63). When information indicating the number of shots is included, the distance from the number of shots, coordinate information, vehicle speed, etc. to the road sign is calculated.

In one embodiment of the present invention, when there are a plurality of road signs adjacent to each other, priority can be set on each road sign. Priority can be set in advance when a road sign is installed, or it can be configured so that an administrator can set it arbitrarily. In addition, a sensor capable of detecting the circumstance of the environment can be provided on the road sign, and the priority can be adjusted according to the circumstance of the environment sensed by the sensor. For example, a slippery road sign may be set to have the highest priority in a rain or snowy environment.

In one embodiment, the road sign information can be configured to be transmitted only from the radio transmitter assigned to the road sign having the highest priority. In this case, when a plurality of road signs are present adjacent to each other, each road sign is provided with a short distance wireless communication means for short distance wireless communication with an adjacent road sign, and a low priority (e.g., priority = 2) The information indicating the type of the road sign can be sent to the short distance wireless communication means of the road sign having the highest priority (e.g., priority = 1) in the short distance wireless communication means of the sign. The wireless transmitter assigned to the road sign having the highest priority also transmits the information indicating the type of the adjacent road sign received via the short distance wireless communication means together with the wireless signal.

In another embodiment, the wireless transmitter may be installed only on the road sign with the highest priority, and the wireless transmitter may be configured to wirelessly transmit road sign information about a plurality of adjacent road signs.

While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, but many variations and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Various modifications and variations will be possible. Therefore, the embodiments disclosed in the present invention are intended to illustrate rather than limit the scope of the present invention, and the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments. The scope of protection of the present invention should be construed according to the following claims, and all technical ideas within the scope of equivalents should be construed as falling within the scope of the present invention.

10, 20, 30 vehicles
110 wireless receiver,
120, 220, 320 wireless transmitters,
211a, 211b, and 211c cameras,
212 car number recognition means,
310a, 310b, 310c RFID readers.

Claims (26)

A road mark information providing method in a road mark information providing apparatus installed in connection with a road sign,
A vehicle recognition step of recognizing a vehicle running on the road and extracting vehicle identification information;
When the vehicle is recognized, an information transmission step of wirelessly transmitting road sign information including the vehicle identification information, the type of the road sign, and the coordinate information
And providing the road mark information. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the vehicle recognition step includes receiving a vehicle information signal transmitted wirelessly from the vehicle and recognizing unique vehicle identification information included in the vehicle information signal,
Wherein the road mark information includes information on a time when the wireless signal is received. 3. The method of claim 2,
There is a display means for indicating that there is a road sign before a predetermined distance of the road sign,
And when the vehicle recognizes the display means, transmits a vehicle information signal. The method of claim 3,
Wherein the display means is a predetermined type of image, and the vehicle recognizes the display means using the image recognition means. The method according to claim 1,
The vehicle recognizing step includes the steps of recognizing the vehicle from the image acquired by the image acquiring means, and recognizing the vehicle number as the vehicle identification information from the recognized image of the vehicle,
Wherein the road mark information includes information about a time at which the vehicle number is recognized. 6. The method of claim 5,
In the vehicle recognizing step, the vehicle driving each lane is distinguished from the image,
Wherein the road mark information includes information about a lane on which the vehicle is recognized. The method according to claim 1,
The vehicle recognizing step includes receiving a signal from an RFID tag installed on the floor of a vehicle using an RFID reader installed on the road surface and extracting unique vehicle identification information from a signal from the RFID tag,
Wherein the road mark information includes information on a time when a signal is received from the RFID tag. 8. The method of claim 7,
The RFID reader is installed for each lane,
Wherein the road mark information includes information on a lane on which the RFID reader receiving the signal from the RFID tag is installed. 9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8,
The information transmitting step is repeatedly performed at a predetermined time period,
Wherein the road mark information includes information indicating a number of times of the vehicle identification after the vehicle identification step. 10. The method of claim 9,
Wherein the vehicle calculates the information indicating the number of times of shipment, the coordinate information, and the distance from the speed of the vehicle to the road sign. 9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8,
Wherein the vehicle is regarded as road marking information for itself, only road marking information including vehicle identification information identical to the vehicle identification information of the vehicle. Vehicle identification means installed in connection with the road sign and recognizing the vehicle running on the road and extracting the vehicle identification information,
When receiving the vehicle information recognized by the vehicle recognition means, transmits a road sign information including the type of the road sign and the coordinate information together with the vehicle identification information,
The road mark information providing system comprising: 13. The method of claim 12,
Wherein the vehicle recognizing means is a wireless receiver for receiving a vehicle information signal transmitted from a vehicle wirelessly and extracting unique vehicle identification information included in the vehicle information signal,
Wherein the wireless transmitter also transmits information on the extracted vehicle identification information and the time when the wireless signal is received. 14. The method of claim 13,
Further comprising display means for indicating that there is a road sign before a predetermined distance of the road sign,
And when the vehicle recognizes the display means, transmits a vehicle information signal. 15. The method of claim 14,
Wherein the display means is a predetermined type of image, and the vehicle recognizes the display means using the image recognition means. 13. The method of claim 12,
Wherein the vehicle recognizing means includes one or more cameras for acquiring an image of the vehicle and vehicle number recognizing means for recognizing the vehicle number as vehicle identification information from the image of the vehicle,
Wherein the wireless transmitter also transmits information about the recognized vehicle number and the time at which the image of the vehicle was acquired. 17. The method of claim 16,
The camera recognizes the vehicle that runs on each lane,
Wherein the wireless transmitter transmits information about a lane in which the vehicle is recognized. 13. The method of claim 12,
The vehicle recognition means is an RFID reader installed on the road surface for receiving a signal from an RFID tag installed on the floor of the vehicle and extracting unique vehicle identification information,
Wherein the wireless transmitter includes information on the extracted vehicle identification information and a time when a signal is received from the RFID tag. 19. The method of claim 18,
The RFID reader is installed for each lane,
Wherein the wireless transmitter also transmits information on a lane on which the RFID reader that has received the signal from the RFID tag is installed. 20. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 19,
Wherein the vehicle is regarded as road marking information for itself, only the road marking information including the same vehicle identification information as the own vehicle identification information. 20. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 19,
The wireless transmitter repeatedly transmits road sign information at predetermined time intervals,
Wherein the road mark information includes information indicating a number of times the road mark information is transmitted. 22. The method of claim 21,
Wherein the vehicle calculates information on the number of shots, the coordinate information, and the distance from the speed of the vehicle to the road sign. 20. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 19,
Wherein when a plurality of road signs are adjacent to each other, priority is set for each road sign, and the road sign information is transmitted only from a radio transmitter assigned to the road sign having the highest priority. 24. The method of claim 23,
In the case where a plurality of road signs are adjacent to each other, each road sign is provided with a short distance wireless communication means for short distance wireless communication with an adjacent road sign,
The information indicating the type of the road sign is transmitted from the short distance wireless communication means of the low priority road sign to the short distance wireless communication means of the road sign having the highest priority,
Wherein the wireless transmitter assigned to the road sign having the highest priority transmits the information indicating the type of the adjacent road sign received via the short range wireless communication means together with the wireless signal. 25. The method of claim 24,
A sensor is provided on the road sign to detect the surrounding environment,
Wherein the priority is adjusted according to a situation of a surrounding environment sensed by the sensor. 20. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 19,
In the case where a plurality of road signs are adjacent to each other, a priority is set in each road sign, the radio dispatcher is installed in a road sign having the highest priority, and the radio dispatcher sends road sign information about the plurality of road signs The road mark information providing system comprising:

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